A tennis player desires to repeatedly practice various kinds of skills such as ground and back stroke, a serve, and a volley to learn proper shots and stroke development. Generally, a trainer throws or hits a ball toward the player. Alternatively, a machine directs a ball toward the player. To learn a proper ball/racquet contact point, timing, and stroke development, it is effective for a player to visualize proper ball placement and hit a ball at a constant location. However, it is difficult for instructor or a machine to repeatedly locate a ball to consistently train the student. Furthermore, because a trainer or machine provides many balls toward a player and the player hits those in the court, many balls are left on the court, and a player or a trainer has to retrieve the balls. Additionally, the instructor is usually a distance away from the student (across the net) and must physically move to the student and/or make a deliberate effort to turn off the machine to address the teaching point to the student. Finally, a student/instructor lesson is limited to a specific designated tennis facility in order to support the lesson plan.
Pronin (U.S. Pat. No. 4,023,798) discloses a training device for practicing a tennis serve. The device consists of a frame which supports an overhead target and a cooperating ground surface target. A player learns a proper position for standing and tossing a ball for a serve. The overhead target is movably mounted and adjustable in height so that its lowermost surface can be readily placed at the optimum toss height for the user's serve and it will move when struck to indicate an overtoss.
Ferreira-Godinho (U.S. Pat. No. 4,243,221) discloses a tennis device for practicing a tennis serve. The device comprises a second net rising above the conventional play net and a recovery net arranged before the play net. The second net intercepts balls served toward the conventional net. The recovery net catches the balls and lets them roll out to the base line through a ball outlet. This device is purported to allow a player to easily retrieve the balls served. However, because a player hits many balls to repeatedly practice serves, he/she has to collect many balls.
Jones (U.S. Pat. No. 5,011,143) discloses a tennis training device for practicing a tennis serve. The device comprises a height adjustment pole secured to a tennis court, a target support arm, and a target. The target support arm extends horizontally from the pole and swings in a horizontal plane when a player hits the target. This device does not require a player retrieve many balls served. However, because the shape of the target is not a ball, but a pole and the target moves in a horizontal plane, player cannot experience actual feeling of serving a ball when he/she hits the target.
In these devices, it is not easy to adjust the height of the target to be hit. Moreover, these devices are designed only for practicing a serve. A tennis player cannot practice other shots such as a stroke and volley and the combination of various shots, for example, a serve and a volley, and ground strokes and a volley.
It is the objective of the present invention is to provide a simple device for training various kinds of tennis shots without need of retrieving tennis balls shot by a player.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a simple device for training tennis skills which can easily adjust the position of the ball regardless of the height of the player and the kind of a shot to be practiced.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a simple device for self-training various kinds of tennis shots without need of retrieving tennis balls shot by a player.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a method of tennis training with the device for training tennis shots provided by the present invention.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a method and a device for training children's tennis shots, particularly a serve.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a method and a device for training children's tennis shots, particularly a serve in a location that is not tennis centric, meaning that the training can be either on a tennis court or outside the traditional location/place where tennis is instructed/taught.